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DECA Kicks Off Competitions

ST. MARYS — A group of local junior and senior high school students recently competed in a district competition as part of a class.

Memorial High School students in DECA — or Distributive Education Clubs of America — attended the District 3 Fall Leadership Conference held Oct. 5 at Ohio Northern University.

"It was a general competition to introduce the students to some of the competitive events they will work on throughout the year," DECA Adviser Heidi Lisi said.

She noted 12 juniors and 10 seniors attended the event, which included the following events: Parliamentary procedures, public relations, team management, marketing series and marketing test.

"Seven of the students received trophies in their events," Lisi said.

Senior Ryan Wilker won third place in marketing test, junior Molly Albert won second place in marketing series, senior DJ Manning won fourth place in marketing series, senior Mitch Fowler won third place in public relations, junior Tyler Rose won fifth place in job interview and seniors Brooke Slife and Sara Lininger won first place in team management.

"There were only two events from this competition that move on to the state level, parliamentary law and public relations," Lisi said. "Mitch Fowler will be competing in public relations at state. If he wins at state, he becomes a state officer/an Ohio DECA public relations representative. He has to take a test over DECA facts and public relations information, give a one-minute self-introduction to judges, write a press release and has to interview with a panel of judges."

Memorial High School senior Taylor Grant will also be running for a state officer position.

"He's running for Ohio DECA secretary treasurer," Lisi said. "He will have to campaign with Ohio DECA students, give a speech to Ohio DECA students and be voted into office by Ohio DECA students."

The office of Ohio DECA secretary treasurer, Lisi said, is not a judged event.

"It's student voted," she said. "He had to take and go through a test, but he has to campaign to win."

The entire District 3 competition, Lisi said, is used as a practice event for most students.

“This particular competition is more of a practice, introductory competition, so they can experience what a competition will entail and then they'll be more prepared when they move on to compete in February," she said.

The next level for the students will be the District 3 Career Development Conference, which will be Feb. 1 at Bluffton University.